I'll Never Get Used to It: Young People Living on the Street

PREPARED BY
Kathy McCauley
May 2014
The Allegheny County
Department of Human Services
One Smithfield Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
PHONE 412.350.5701
FAX 412.350.4004
www.alleghenycounty.us/dhs
Research Report
I’ll never get used to it:
Young People Living on the Street

Children, Youth and Families | I’ll Never Get Used to It: Young People Living on the Street | May 2014 page ii
www.alleghenycounty.us/dhs | The Allegheny County Department of Human Services
Allegheny County Department of Human Services
The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) is dedicated to
meeting the human services needs of county residents, particularly the county’s
most vulnerable populations, through an extensive range of prevention,
intervention, crisis management and after-care services.
This report was prepared by the Office of Data Analysis, Research and Evaluation
(DARE), an office within DHS. DARE supports and publishes research related to
the activities of DHS in a number of categories, including: Aging; Basic Needs;
Behavioral Health and Disabilities; Child Development and Education; Children,
Youth and Families; Crime and Justice; and Innovation, Reform and Policy.
DHS is grateful to the unaccompanied youth who so generously shared their
experiences and insight as well as the many providers and community stakeholders
dedicated to preventing homelessness and providing support to those experiencing
a housing crisis. The following individuals provided crucial guidance in the
development of this report: JoAnn Hanna, Charles Keenan, Samantha Murphy
and Evelyn Whitehill of DHS; Joe Lagana and Susy Robison of Homeless Children’s
Education Fund; Lyndsey Sickler of Persad Center; Lenny Prewitt of FamilyLinks;
Mary Jo McCarrick of Three Rivers Youth; Mac McMahon of Community Human
Services; and Jay Poliziani of Northside Common Ministries.
DHS research products are available for viewing and download at the DHS
Research and Reports Web page at www.alleghenycounty.us/dhs/research.aspx.
For more information about this publication or about DHS’s research agenda,
please send an email to dhs-research@alleghenycounty.us.
To learn more about DHS and available services, visit the DHS website
at www.alleghenycounty.us/dhs/index.aspx or call 412-350-5701
(TDD 412-473-2017).
© 2014 Allegheny County DHS
Published 2014 by Allegheny County DHS

Children, Youth and Families | I’ll Never Get Used to It: Young People Living on the Street | May 2014 page iii
CONTENTS
Acronyms 1
Summary 2
Introduction 3
About young adults who are homeless 4
A note on definition of “young adults” used here 5
How many homeless young adults are there in the U.S.? 5
Characteristics 6
Where the youth sleep 7
What homeless youth need 8
Reasons for youth homelessness and a typology 9
Typology 9
Interventions that work for low-risk, transient and high-risk youth 10
Goals for interventions 10
Larkin Street (San Francisco) 12
Covenant House (New York City) 13
Lighthouse Youth Services (Cincinnati) 14
Allegheny County 16
How many young adults are homeless in Allegheny County? 16
Services in Allegheny County 16
How the youth know where to turn for help 17
Food 18
Shelter 19
Showers, laundry and phones 23
Where to stay indoors 23
Education and training 25
Employment 26
Healthcare 27

Children, Youth and Families | I’ll Never Get Used to It: Young People Living on the Street | May 2014 page iv
Transportation 27
Clothes and shoes 28
Mail and legal assistance 28
Local Issues 28
Recommendations 31
Appendices
APPENDIX A: Methods 35
APPENDIX B: Comments 36
APPENDIX C: Categories of Homelessness 37
APPENDIX D: Definitions of Homeless Youth 38
APPENDIX E: Summaries of Key Legislation 43
APPENDIX F: Methods of Measuring Youth Homelessness 48
APPENDIX G: Santa Clara County Methodology for Counting Homeless 49
APPENDIX H: Counting Couch-Surfers 52
APPENDIX I: Map 1: Resources for Homeless 53
APPENDIX J: Map 2: Resources to Share with Unaccompanied Youth 54
APPENDIX K: Calculations 55
APPENDIX L: Health Care Clinics with Free or Sliding Fee Scales 56
Tables
TABLE 1: Where Respondents Usually Stay at Night (2013, Santa Clara County) 8
TABLE 2: Prevalence of the Subgroups of Homeless Youth 10
TABLE 3: Federal and State Sources of Homeless Assistance Funding 17
TABLE 4: Food Sources 19
TABLE 5: Sources of Emergency Shelter 20
TABLE 6: Sources of Transitional Housing (for Youth) 21
TABLE 7: Sources of Showers, Laundry and Phones 23
TABLE 8: Places to Stay Indoors 24
Sources 57

Children, Youth and Families | I’ll Never Get Used to It: Young People Living on the Street | May 2014 page 1
ACRONYMS
ACF [HHS] Administration for Children and Families
CHS Community Human Services
COC Continuum of Care
CYF [DHS Office of] Children, Youth and Families
DHS [Allegheny County] Department of Human Services
DOCS Downtown Outreach Center and Shelter
ESG Emergency Solutions Grant
GED [High School] General Equivalency Diploma
GLCC Gay and Lesbian Community Center
HCEF Homeless Children’s Education Fund
HHS [U.S. Department of] Health and Human Services
HIC Housing Inventory Count
HMIS Homeless Management Information System
HUD [U.S. Department of] Housing and Urban Development
ICPH Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness
LGBTQ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning
NAEH National Alliance to End Homelessness
OSN Operation Safety Net
PIT Point-in-Time
PMHS Pittsburgh Mercy Health System
PROJECT HELP [OSN’s] Homeless Experience Legal Protection
TLP [DOCS] Transitional Living Program
UPMC University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
USICH U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness

SUMMARY
Despite Allegheny County’s rich array of services to prevent
and address homelessness, approximately 240 young people
ages 18 through 24 are living on the street, in abandoned
buildings, and in shelters. Because local leaders want to be
sure that these youth are receiving the help and support
that they need at a very crucial stage in their lives, they
commissioned this study of homeless youth. The report
includes information on the national context, local services
available to these youth, and ways in which our region might
improve its systems to support this population.
The report begins with a summary of the characteristics of the estimated 55,000 young adults
in the U.S. who are homeless, finding that their educational levels are half that of their non-
homeless peers and that 30 percent have been in foster care, 30 percent are LGBTQ, and a
significant share have been involved in the juvenile or adult criminal justice systems. The roots
of their housing issues include loss of a job, being told to leave their parents’ home or choosing
to run away (often because of their sexual orientation), and behavioral health issues. Younger
members of this group are more likely to maintain relationships and the ability to return home
at some point, and about 10 percent of this group are chronically homeless — more likely to have
dropped out of school, struggled with mental health and substance use issues, and experienced
substantial mobility when they were children.
To provide an overview of how other cities have built a system to prevent and address
homelessness among young adults, we examine outstanding models of service provision:
Larkin Street, in San Francisco; Covenant House, in New York; and the Lighthouse, in Cincinnati.
Each offers a comprehensive array of services under the umbrella of one organization.
Looking next at Allegheny County’s approach, the report details core services from the
perspective of a young person. Based on interviews with homeless youth and service providers
as well as the providers’ written documentation, the report details the hours and locations of

these services and identifies gaps in availability of services as well as other issues, including the
need for more shelter beds for this age range, the difficulty young people have in navigating a
system that is so decentralized, and the fact that the system is designed for adults, rather than
youth, who are less trusting of authority and less savvy about resources.
This analysis leads us to the following recommendations for local leaders and funders of
the housing and homelessness system:
1. Expand the eligibility window for existing youth services to extend through age 24.
This matches the HUD definition of “youth.”
2. Plan services for this age group.
3. Open a drop-in center in or near downtown; or open shelters during the day to serve drop-ins.
4. Increase shelter options for youth.
5. Review quality assurance and provide training across the entire continuum of housing and
homelessness services and to people at key intervention points where they might encounter
homeless youth.
6. Planning and coordination to address the issues that result from multiple funding sources
with varying policies and requirements.
INTRODUCTION
The Allegheny County Department of Human Services (DHS) has a rich and well-integrated
network of human services for individuals and families. Multiple studies have shown that DHS
programs are strengthening communities and improving the lives of thousands of children,
youth and adults.
But youth over the age of 18 who are homeless and living outside of the care and support of the
foster care system may not find their way into this rich system of services, even though they need
it. Many of these young people are without steady work or a way of supporting themselves, and
some have serious mental health issues and are disconnected from people who could help them.
So they are living on the streets, in shelters or in other unstable, sometimes dangerous, locations.
Just how many young adults are homeless is difficult to know, since Point-in-Time counts do
not enumerate youth who are on a couch at a friend’s or stranger’s apartment and undercount
people who are sleeping in parks, camps and abandoned buildings. Whether that number is
100 or 1,000, however, there needs to be a coherent approach to reaching the young people
and helping them get food and safe places to stay, connect with work/education, and access
the other services they need to be healthy and stable. This is why DHS leaders commissioned
the research to help them better understand:
• the issues that young adults who are homeless are facing;
• effective models for reaching and serving this target population;

• the availability of local services; and
• possible improvements to the current system.
This report begins by providing some context (e.g., the characteristics of these youth, the issues
they face, and the reasons for their homelessness), followed by a typology that can be used
to target interventions to these young adults. It describes model programs in New York, San
Francisco and Cincinnati, and then turns to Allegheny County’s service system and local issues,
concluding with a set of recommendations
ABOUT YOUNG ADULTS WHO ARE HOMELESS
The nation’s concern about homeless young adults has grown as research has clarified the
cumulative and long-lasting effects of homelessness on these young people and as communities
realize that helping them may call for something different from the programs they have
established for the adult homeless population:
• Long-term effects. A risk-amplification model suggests that the effects of homelessness
upon youth become magnified over time. Many youth begin with a history of family and
peer conflict, then associate with an anti-social peer group, then are exposed to drugs and
alcohol, survival sex, violence and other victimization. These experiences are compounded,
so that the longer they remain homeless, the more difficult it becomes for them to transition
to stable living (Whitbeck 1999).
• Young adults who are homeless are not the same as older homeless adults. Homeless youth
have a greater degree of distrust — often born of trauma and repeated disappointment.
“Youth are resorting to abandoned buildings, park benches, makeshift shelters, and staying
with friends and sometimes strangers. Many of these youth have experienced significant
trauma before and after becoming homeless. Often they face struggles across multiple
aspects of daily life that contribute to their vulnerability. At the same time, all youth have
strengths, but youth experiencing homelessness often lack positive opportunities and
supports to apply them. An effective strategy must account for the specific needs of
adolescents and youth transitioning to adulthood and the role families can play in both
the reasons for becoming homeless and the potential solutions. These considerations make
an approach to ending homelessness for unaccompanied youth distinct from an approach
to ending homelessness for adults” (U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, 2013).
The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness amended the federal strategic plan to end
homelessness to add a fourth strategy, focused on unaccompanied youth. But some cities and
states have been slow to respond to the needs of these youth because the imperative to act is
blunted both because the term is murky and because the size of the problem is unclear.

A note on definition of “young adults” used here
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has clarified that its definition
of youth is up to age 25. In its Final Rule (reported in the December 5, 2011 Federal Register) says:
HUD agrees that more clarification is needed regarding the use of the term ‘‘youth.’’ HUD
determined that defining “youth” as up to age 25 for the purposes of this category will
help meet the needs of this uniquely vulnerable population, especially those youth exiting
the foster care system. Additionally, this age standard aligns with that provided in the
Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (42 U.S.C. 5732a(3)).
This report adopts that upper limit, further narrowing the subset of young people to those:
• Ages 18 through 24. The lower limit of 18 was selected because youth who are under the age
of 18 fall within the county’s child protective services system, not its housing/homelessness
programs. Note that there is a federally-funded program for runaway and homeless youth
that is designed to provide youth ages 12 through 17 with shelter and services.1
• Without children. Young people who have children are considered “families” under the HUD
definition and have a different array of services available to them.
• Without a stable place to live. DHS uses the HUD definition: lacking a fixed, regular and
adequate nighttime residence.
The following individuals, whose names have been changed, typify homeless young adults who
are the subject of this report:
• James lived in a group home in Wilkinsburg until he was 19, when he signed himself out of
foster care and never accepted any other services from Allegheny County’s child welfare
office. He is 24 years old and currently sleeps on a blanket at the base of Mt. Washington.
• Timothy, age 18, left home because his parents would not accept his sexual orientation.
He is now living in a men’s shelter on Brighton Avenue.
• Molly, age 21, gave up her newborn child for adoption and is living in a shelter in Uptown.
How many homeless young adults are there in the U.S.?
No one really knows. This is because the national enumeration of homelessness, the Point-in-Time
count conducted at the end of January in cities across the country, undercounts the number of
homeless people who are not living in shelters and intentionally excludes from its count those
individuals who are couch-surfing (they are considered homeless only under certain criteria).
This is despite the fact that national and county analyses show that four to five times the number
of people who are living in shelters or on the street are couch-surfing or living with strangers
because they do not have a residence.2
It also misses young people who are:
• Squatters — staying in abandoned buildings and seeking to remain out of sight.
• Experiencing homelessness episodically — they were not on the street or in a shelter
that particular night, but may be homeless off and on during the year.
1
For youth under 18, the U.S.
Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS)
makes grants for Runaway
and Homeless Youth programs.
These grants are made
directly to provider agencies,
not to DHS. They include
programs such as The Loft,
the Three Rivers Youth shelter
for runaway youth ages 12
through 17 (where youth can
stay for up to two weeks,
while staff work on reunifying
the children/youth with
parents or finding stable
housing, or, if this is not safe/
possible, make CYF referrals).
Other programs include
FamilyLinks’ YES (emergency
shelter) program for 12-
through 17-year-olds and the
Transitional Living Programs
that serve youth under age 18.
2
National Alliance to End
Homelessness, Data Snapshop:
Doubled Up in the United
States. Updated March 2008;
and “Doubled Up and Couch
Surfing Estimates,” from 2013
Point-in-Time Count of
Homelessness, Portland/
Multnomah County, Oregon.

Youth may choose these options because they may “distrust and avoid adults, law enforcement
and service providers due to past negative experiences with adult caregivers and other authorities...
Youth over 18 may feel intimidated by adult shelters and the older, chronically homeless singles
staying in them. Homeless youth are therefore more likely either to reside doubled up with
friends, live on the street, or be precariously housed in unusual and hard-to-access locations,
seeking to blend in when possible” (Adams, 2012).
Following a recommendation from the U.S. Interagency Council on
Homelessness, the U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban Development,
Health and Human Services, and Education recently launched Youth
Count!, an initiative to count homeless youth, up to 24 years old,
through innovative implementations of HUD’s 2013 Point-in-Time (PIT)
count. Several Continuums of Care (CoCs), including Seattle, Boston and Santa Clara County,
already have developed strong plans for supplementing their censuses with surveys, and the
National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) recently held a workshop to inform CoCs about
approaches to developing more accurate counts and snapshots of the demographics and needs
of young people.
Recognizing the limits of the PIT count, the NAEH developed its own estimate of homeless
youth using Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data on the unduplicated
number of youth served, making the assumption that most homeless youth would come into
contact with the housing/homelessness system in the course of a year and, therefore, this
unduplicated figure would give a better sense of the number of youth in need of services.3
Using this method, NAEH estimated that, nationally, 55,000 youth ages 18 through 24 are
homeless (Opening Doors, USICH 2010).
National data on utilization of shelter beds show that there is a shortage of emergency shelter
beds for this age group. Samantha Batko, director of the Homelessness Research Institute for
NAEH, recently wrote, “There are not enough beds for the number of homeless youth in this
country. I’d like that statement to stand on its own for a moment: there are not enough beds for
homeless youth in this country... Every night, homeless youth are turned away from shelter and
housing programs because of a lack of capacity” (Batko, 2013).
Characteristics
The homeless youth population is “heterogeneous and in flux” in the length and frequency
of their episodes of homelessness, so it is important to be cautious about drawing conclusions
about all youth based upon studies of more (or less) chronically homeless youth. “Studies find
rather different profiles of homeless youth depending on sampling strategies, target age groups,
gender balance, measures used, and other methodological factors. For example, studies targeting
older youth, males and youth from the streets tend to find more problem behaviors such as
substance abuse, mental disorders, risky sexual behavior and conduct problems” (Tompsett,
et al. 2006).
3
Discussion with Samantha
Batko, National Alliance to End
Homelessness, August 2013.
“When you’re standing on the Line, people
drive by in their cars and scream obscenities
at you. Being homeless is just degrading. “
— Homeless youth, Pittsburgh

Even so, young adults who are homeless differ from the general population of youth in
significant ways. They are more likely to be:
• Male. According to large-scale studies of homeless youth (Seattle and Midwest studies,
which also include young teens), more males than females live on the streets. This is because
males are less likely to be able to stay with relatives.
• Sexual minority youth, who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender or Questioning (LGBTQ): A 2013 in-person survey of
over 200 unaccompanied youth in Santa Clara County found that
29 percent identified as LGBTQ and four percent identified as
transgender. Another study reported that 15–40 percent of
homeless youth identify as LGBTQ, which is five times the rate
for the general population of youth (cited in Adams, 2012).
• In foster care at some point. The Santa Clara County survey found that 33 percent of
homeless youth had been in foster care.
• Abused. Researchers found that 33 percent of homeless youth reported that they left
home because they were being sexually abused (Rew, 1997). Once they are on the street,
many youth have survival sex. Of the homeless youth surveyed in Nevada who were sexually
active, 14.6 percent reported having engaged in sex for food or shelter. Covenant House
found that eight percent of youth over 18 had engaged in survival sex, most often for shelter
(Bigelsen, 2013).
• Juvenile or criminal justice–involved. A study by Covenant House, New York, found that
30 percent of the youth in their shelters had been in the juvenile justice system (New York
City Association of Homeless and Street-Involved Youth Organizations, 2005). It also is true
that youth on the street are more likely to come into contact with law enforcement officers
over relatively minor offenses that can lead to fines they cannot afford, which, when not
paid, can lead to arrest warrants. “Sixty percent of homeless youth had been fined for
‘quality of life offenses’ such as panhandling, sleeping or camping in public, and loitering”
(National Center for Homeless Education, 2011).
• Less educated. Youth who run away from home at least once before they are 18 years
old are 50 percent less likely to have a high school diploma or GED than their “housed
peers” (Benoit-Bryan, 2011). Half of Santa Clara County’s homeless youth over 18 had
not completed high school.
Where the youth sleep
Studies show that young adults are most likely to couch-surf — that is, stay with friends as long
as they can, finding one place to stay for a night or two, then another the next night, until they
have exhausted their options. When couch-surfing is not possible, they sleep out of doors, in
shelters, in vehicles and abandoned buildings. Part of the reason may be that they do not want
to stay in traditional (adult) shelters, but it also may be that they were turned away from a shelter,
as has been the case in New York City and Washington, D.C.
“God said, ‘You didn’t appreciate what you
had, so I’ll take it away. Now you’ll appreciate
it.’ God knocks off the training wheels.”
— Homeless adult who is a sexual minority

While the geography and weather differ in Santa Clara, California,
the effective outreach to homeless youth that was done there is
illuminating for other jurisdictions. To understand where homeless
youth are living, they organized a large-scale effort to train and
deploy volunteers to look for and count youth (as a supplement to their PIT Count). This effort
showed that, compared with adults, the youth were more likely to choose the street over shelters
(choosing shelters 22 percent of the time compared with 30 percent for other adults).
TABLE 1: Where Respondents Usually Stay at Night (2013, Santa Clara County)
n Adult Population 25+ n Homeless Youth Under 25
Homeless Youth N=207 Adult N=623 (Chart from Connery and Green, Applied Survey Research, Homeless
Point-in-Time Census and Survey. Comprehensive Report, 2013)
What homeless youth need
In addition to noting where they slept, the 2013 Santa Clara survey of youth asked them what
they needed. Their top responses were: food (66 percent), shelter (62 percent), and clothing
(61 percent).
They also said that they needed safety. While homeless:
• 34 percent of the surveyed youth were assaulted,
• 33 percent had been burglarized and 28 percent had been robbed, and
• 27 percent were victims of “gang abuse.”
0 10 20 30 40 50
Outdoors/streets/
parks/encampments
Emergency or
other shelter
A structure or indoor area
not normally used for sleeping
Vehicle
Motel/hotel
42%
39%
30%
22%
6%
14%
10%
9%
3%
12%
10% 30% 40% 50%20%
“I will never get used to it.
It’s in my heart to get off the streets.”
— Homeless youth

REASONS FOR YOUTH HOMELESSNESS AND A TYPOLOGY
Even with experiences and backgrounds like these, most young people do not become homeless.
What actually causes young people to have unstable housing, if even for a short period?
1. They are unemployed or underemployed, and so cannot pay for housing. In the Santa Clara
County survey, 32 percent of the young people said that they were homeless because they
had lost a job, the most common reason given.
2. They were told to leave the house. This reason is more prevalent for youth who identify as
LGBTQ; nearly 40 percent of gay males who are homeless reported being thrown out of
their house (Whitbeck, 2004).
3. They ran away from home or from foster care. Thirty percent of unaccompanied youth
in Santa Clara County said that a fight with their parent or guardian was a cause of their
homelessness. (About a fifth of the youth had tried to move back in with their parents.)
In an older study, 37 percent of the homeless youth who had left home said it was because
“their parents disapproved of their drug or alcohol use” (Rew, 1997).
4. Their juvenile/criminal justice involvement means that they cannot live with their parents/
guardians or do not qualify for public housing themselves; and they do not earn enough to afford
a place to live that is not subsidized by Section 8 or other public resource. A local provider said,
“Finding subsidized affordable housing is hard now. Landlords can pick and choose. If you have a
criminal record you won’t get it.”
5. They have serious mental health issues that preclude them from working, finding housing,
or retaining housing. Youth in the Santa Clara County study said that they suffered from chronic
depression (40 percent) or another mental illness (15 percent). Among Minnesota youth,
60 percent were homeless when they entered an institutional stay and 55.8 percent exited
without a stable place to live (ICPH report).
6. They have substance use issues, which can be exacerbated by lives without stable homes or
work to do. In the Santa Clara County survey, 74 percent of the youth said that they used some
form of drugs or alcohol. One young man who had visited the center at Persad in downtown
Pittsburgh said, “You think, ‘what more do I have to lose?’ It got me into addiction deeper.”
7. They choose to live on the streets. Surveys show that living on the streets is a choice for few
young people or adults. Research shows this represents seven percent or less of the
homeless population.
Typology
NAEH has outlined a typology that can be useful in tailoring services to subsets of young
adults who are homeless. It draws upon the work of Paul Toro, Tegan Lesperance and Jordan
Braciszewski, who categorized the behaviors of a probability sample of 250 youth from Detroit
who were homeless adolescents whom local agencies were serving, as well as some recruited
on the street. Toro et al. interviewed them at baseline (18 years and younger) and then again
at intervals of up to 6.5 years later.

After looking at a wide array of possible characteristics that could place them into subtypes
(e.g., family cohesion, self-efficacy, risky behaviors, mental health diagnoses/symptoms), the
researchers identified a “three-class solution” that described the youth:
1. Low risk
2. Transient but connected
3. High risk
This typology for adolescents is similar to the Transitional, Episodic and Chronic subgroups that
Dennis Culhane and his co-researchers suggested for the adult population. As with other adults,
most youth are low risk/transitional:
TABLE 2: Prevalence of the Subgroups of Homeless Youth
SUB-POPULATIONS
% YOUTH
18 THROUGH 24
Low-risk/Transitional youth tend to be younger, maintain more stable
relationships with their families and school, and experience the least amount
of homelessness over time.
More likely to be low risk: Younger individuals
81%
Transient but connected /Episodic youth have less stable connections
with school and housing because they’ve moved in and out of homelessness
repeatedly. They did not have prominent mental health or substance abuse
problems. They retained relationships with their families.
More likely to be transient but connected: Young women
9%
High-risk /Chronic youth are more likely to have dropped out of school,
have unstable relationships with their families, struggled with mental health
and substance abuse issues, and experienced long stretches of
homelessness and substantial housing mobility.
More likely to be high risk: Young men; white youth
10%
INTERVENTIONS THAT WORK FOR LOW-RISK, TRANSIENT AND HIGH-RISK YOUTH
Goals for interventions
The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness identified four desirable outcomes for youth
who are homeless: 1) stable housing; 2) permanent connections; 3) education or employment;
and 4) social–emotional well-being.
Since most homeless youth are transitionally homeless (spending a short time homeless and not
returning to homelessness)4
, the challenge is to respond rapidly so that they are safe during the
short term while preventing homelessness stays from lengthening. As one formerly homeless
4
Dennis Culhane’s research, as
summarized in An Emerging
Framework for Ending
Unaccompanied Youth
Homelessness, NAEH

young person in Pittsburgh (now employed and in an apartment) said, “You have to catch it
early on, before thinking ‘being at the bottom is at the top for me.’”
NAEH5
cites several good interventions for helping people get off the streets and into more
stable situations.
For all young people
• Provide housing and other services within a comprehensive approach, with a consistency
of services.
• Deliver an effective crisis response, including having an adequate number of shelters
available so that youth are never turned away.
For the low-risk and transient but connected
• Prioritize family reunification, when it is safe for the youth to return — even for the
18 through 24 age group. NAEH says that “family reunification could be seen as a first
line of defense” for programs:
“For young adults (18 through 24 years) who fall in the transitional subpopulation,
connection with family and caring adults is also a positive outcome and, so again,
family intervention could be seen as a first line of intervention, when appropriate...
Family-finding can be valuable, whether or not the youth returns home.”
For the transient but connected who are over 18, provide:
• Rapid re-housing
• Transitional housing, making sure to reduce barriers to entry and prevent involuntary exits.
• Permanent supportive housing, where appropriate. This includes connections to education,
employment and transition to independent living.
For young adults at high risk (chronic), provide:
• Supportive housing
• Long-term housing
• Permanent supportive housing with low barriers to entry, for youth who have been
homeless for long periods and for youth with disabilities.
As examples of this comprehensive approach for unaccompanied homeless youth, we highlight
three model programs: Larkin Street in San Francisco, Covenant House in New York City and
Philadelphia, and Lighthouse Youth Services in Cincinnati. Each offers services for low-risk,
transient and high-risk youth.
5
NAEH laments the lack
of research comparing
interventions for the group
as a whole and the fact that
there are no studies
“examining how different
interventions address the
issues of the different
subpopulations.” It developed
its recommendations using
the outcomes for Runaway
and Homeless Youth Act
(RHYA) and Continuum of
Care programs and the
prevalence of the subgroups
in the typology.

Larkin Street (San Francisco)
Larkin Street Youth Services has a very comprehensive set of programs to serve an estimated
5,700 homeless youth in San Francisco. Its services include family reunification, an extensive
outreach program, and free van transportation for youth to move among its 25 different
programs located across the city, in addition to the other services in a continuum of care:
Outreach and Drop-in: Larkin Street’s outreach integrates its Outreach Teams (whose staff
are finding and working with youth on the streets) with its Drop-in Center and Referral Center:
Sutter Street Drop-in Center is for all youth and open during the day. It is a safe haven, a
place to get food, clothing, and support for education, family reunification, legal matters,
and sexual identity issues. It also is the entryway to further services, including shelter.
The Haight Street Referral Center is another hub for food, hygiene supplies and referrals to
Larkin Street services. It is located near the Golden Gate Park, an area of high need.
Shelters and Crisis Care: Larkin Street runs several emergency shelters for youth that it
views as entry points to its continuum of programs. One of these is:
Lark-Inn, a full-service shelter for 18- through 24-year-olds. It has 40 beds, a computer lab, a
kitchen and dining area, laundry facilities, bathrooms and a pet kennel. Residents who show
progress in meeting the goals of their case plans can go to the “Gateway program,” which
has a semi-private living area with a private bathroom and a TV lounge with fewer restrictions.
Housing: Larkin Street Youth Services provides transitional and permanent housing to
subgroups of youth:
Avenues to Independence: For 18- through 24-year-olds. This 15-bed facility provides stable
housing for up to two years. Residents pay rent, work or are in training for careers, and
complete their education through GED preparation or college classes.
G-House: Also for youth ages 18 through 24, this is a 20-bed facility.
The LOFT: This transitional living program is for youth who are “emancipating from
the foster care system.” It is a licensed group home with a system of natural rewards
and consequences, designed specifically for homeless teens who have been living on the
street. (It aims to emulate the family structure, with curfews, chores and other expectations.)
Participants receive individual case management, access to health care, mentoring and
support. They engage in school or training, career readiness and life skills education.
LEASE: Individual apartments and wraparound services for 18- through 24-year-old
“former foster care kids.” It emphasizes training in life skills and helps youth create individual
life plans. All of the young adults receive counseling and most attend college on a part-time
or full-time basis.

Holloway House: A stepping stone to LEASE (individual apartments) for 18- through
24-year-olds who are exiting foster care. Holloway House is group housing with extra
support and staff who assist the youth in developing the skills required for self-sufficiency.
CastroYouthHousing:This is housing for youth who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.
Residents pay half of their income in rent to encourage responsibility and to gain skills in
budgeting. The program also provides weekly case management, life skills training, behavioral
health referrals, and access to employment and education in the Larkin Street continuum.
Aftercare: A residential facility for youth with HIV that includes an HIV Specialty Clinic.
It provides 24-hour care and medical support and has trained case managers and
counselors who assess the youth for mental health or substance abuse issues and link
them with psychiatric care as needed. Residents have a voice in how the house is run
(e.g., leadership, design activities) and share a large communal area, kitchen, dining
facilities, and a living and recreation room.
Routz: For 18- through 24-year-olds who need mental health services. Housing, case
management and therapeutic services. Housing is in scattered site apartments as well
as the former Aarti Hotel. Routz was launched with funding provided through California’s
Mental Health Services Act of 2007.
Ellis Street Apartments: Permanent supportive housing in 24 studio apartments. The building
is located down the street from Larkin Street’s “Hire Up Center” and educational services.
Other services in the continuum include education, vocational education and employment,
which are offered at several of the Larkin Street locations.
Covenant House (New York City)
Covenant House has been serving homeless youth in NYC since 1972. It serves more than
5,000 youth each year through its crisis centers, community outreach center, apartment
living programs, job skills program and health services. Its continuum of care also includes
grief counseling and legal aid.
Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions below are specific to the programs in New York City,
even though Covenant House has locations in Philadelphia, Michigan, Alaska and other places
throughout the U.S.
Outreach: Covenant House staff conduct outreach on the street, including van outreach,
as well as community/school outreach, often with Covenant House youth who are in the
program, to try to prevent youth homelessness.
Shelter/Crisis Care: Covenant House maintains an open intake policy and states that no
child is ever turned away from its services; and that “within 72 hours of entering Covenant
House, every new arrival visits our in-house clinic for medical attention.” Teens receive a

warm meal, a shower and a bed to sleep in. Counselors gather basic information about the
young people, including where they have been staying, and they will “drive new intake
cases to the last place they were staying to pick up any belongings they were forced to
leave behind.” If the youth need legal aid, the staff lawyer can “immediately provide
assistance in obtaining a restraining order or identity changes to protect against predators.”
If youth want to continue in Covenant House’s other programs, the staff will help them
develop individual plans.
Housing: Rights of Passage: This program provides youth with structured transitional living
and life skills training for up to 18 months. The young people are required to do their own
shopping, cooking and cleaning, and to turn over part of their salary to Covenant House,
which places it into a savings account and returns it to the youth at the end of their stay.
Other services Education: Covenant House conducts an educational assessment at intake
and helps the youth get their high school diplomas or GEDs. Each of its sites provides
tutoring, remedial education groups and flexible GED preparation classes.
At Covenant House’s location in Detroit, it has started its own network of charter schools
that also teach life skills.
Training: The agency’s job training programs include certification courses in culinary arts,
desktop publishing, medical assistant professions, public safety and computer skills. (At
Covenant House’s location in Alaska, it has started a coffee shop that is also a customer
service training program for youth.)
Employment preparation: Staff prepare the youth for employment by conducting mock
interviews, providing interview clothes and helping them prepare resumes. The agency
cultivates relationships with employers and provides help to youth after they get jobs.
Health care: Covenant House provides primary medical care at no charge to youth who
are 21 years old or younger. In addition to the initial physical exam shortly after intake,
Covenant House staff will accompany the youth to outside health providers. They do not
provide, but do make referrals to, behavioral health services.
Lighthouse Youth Services (Cincinnati)
Lighthouse Youth Services is the city’s primary provider for housing and homeless services for
youth. Its continuum of care includes:
Outreach: The agency’s street outreach team uses a harm reduction approach, working to
assure a basic level of safety for youth on the streets. The team operates out of a van that is
stocked with supplies that staff can distribute to homeless youth (blankets, hygiene items,
clothing, water and survival supplies). The staff also provide case management and can
assess a youth for eligibility to enter a shelter.

Shelter/Crisis Care: Lighthouse Sheakley Center for Youth: This is a combination resource
center and shelter, for males and females ages 18 through 24. The Resource Center, which
is open weekdays from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., provides food, hygiene items, clothing, showers,
laundry facilities, mail services and access to the Internet. The Center’s coordinator also can
help with accessing services. A registered nurse is available for first aid and basic health
care as well as referrals.
Lighthouse Services recently opened its first 28-bed shelter for this age group. It was filled
within the first week. Intake occurs seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. This shelter has
counselors, nurses and a therapist, and it provides help in finding permanent housing. (The
goal is for residents to exit to housing within 30 days. Aftercare is available for up to 90 days
after the youth leave.) It also serves as a hub for youth to access other Lighthouse services,
including educational, health and human service programs. The program director, Mark
Kroner, said that they opened this new shelter when they realized that youth were not going
to the adult shelter because the adults did not want them there, and the youth often
preferred to live on the streets rather than abide by the rules of the shelter.
The agency says that it is taking a low-threshold approach in this new shelter: If a young
person is high on alcohol or other drugs, he will not be kicked out. “No more than a college
dorm would,” is how Kroner put it.
Youth Crisis Center: This facility provides shelter services and a crisis hotline for 10-
through 17-year-olds. It is a 20-bed emergency facility open 24 hours a day, 365 days
a year. According to Lighthouse, “Under Ohio law, youth may seek shelter without
consent at the Youth Crisis Center while their situation is examined by appropriate child
protection investigators.”
Housing: Transitional Living Program: This program for 18- through 22-year-olds provides
housing, case management and self-sufficiency training for up to 18 months. Housing for
males is available through clustered and scattered sites; housing for women and children
is available through scattered sites. To qualify, the youth has to be “certified homeless,”
which involves working with a street outreach program or homeless shelter prior to applying
for admission. Participants are expected to spend 30 hours a week in productive activity
and to develop life skills through the training that Lighthouse provides. The youth pay for
an increasing share of their rent until they are fully self-sufficient. Lighthouse also helps to
furnish apartments and can help with the costs of getting established, including food and
household needs.
Shelter + Care: This program, for 18- through 24-year-olds, provides permanent supported
housing at scattered sites for men and women who have “emotional or substance abuse
disabilities.”

ALLEGHENY COUNTY
How many young adults are homeless in Allegheny County?
We estimate that there are approximately 240 young people (individuals, ages 18 through 24)
who are living in a shelter or on the street. The calculation of this figure is as follows:
• The county’s most recent PIT count6
found that 106 people ages 18 through 24 were
homeless and did not have children in their care. Of these, 91 were sheltered.
• Since the PIT enumeration is known to undercount the number of “unsheltered” youth and,
therefore, the number of services that they actually need, we looked for a more accurate
ratio of sheltered:unsheltered. One community that had done extensive outreach during
its 2013 PIT count was Multnomah County, Oregon (Portland). The ratio of “emergency or
other shelter” to unsheltered locations was 1 sheltered:1.6 unsheltered.
• Appling that ratio to Allegheny County (assuming youth here are as likely as those in Portland,
Oregon, to sleep on the street, compared to shelter), the total number of unsheltered youth
in Allegheny County would be 146.
• This would mean that a total of 91 sheltered + 146 unsheltered, or 237 youth would be
homeless during the PIT count.
This does not count those who are couch-surfing. The number of couch-surfers would increase
the figure by a factor of between two and five, according to estimates developed by Multnomah
County and Portland, Maine. (See Appendix H on page 52 for information about estimating
couch-surfers.)
Services in Allegheny County
Funding
How does Allegheny County find, engage and help these young people? Currently it is through
a system that is largely focused on adults 25 and older. The system does have components
(like the FamilyLinks shelter in Uptown) that youth use more often than other services.
Most of the funding for the homeless system comes from federal and state grants made directly
to DHS, which contracts for services with various agencies in the county. HUD makes smaller
homelessness services grants directly to the Allegheny County Department of Economic
Development, and to the City of Pittsburgh, the City of McKeesport and the Municipality of
Penn Hills. There also are federal grants made directly to agencies like Three Rivers Youth
(by the Runaway and Homeless Act), the Veterans Administration and the Veterans Leadership
Program. Faith-based organizations and nonprofit organizations also raise non-government
funds for homelessness and housing services, and contribute substantially through their
volunteer and in-kind services.
6
PIT Summary for PA-600-
Pittsburgh/McKeesport/Penn
Hills/Allegheny County CoC,
January 30, 2013.

An overview of the major government sources for housing/homeless services is provided below:
TABLE 3: Federal and State Sources of Homeless Assistance Funding
SOURCE PROGRAM RECIPIENT
HUD Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid
Transition to Housing (HEARTH):
• Supportive Housing program
• Shelter Plus Care
• Moderate rehabilitation/SRO program
DHS
Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG):
• Street outreach
• Emergency shelter
• Homeless prevention and rapid re-housing
Allegheny County Department
of Economic Development,
City of Pittsburgh7
HHS (ACF) Runaway and Homeless:
• Basic Center Three Rivers Youth
• Street Outreach Program8
Persad Center recently lost
funding for this service;
no local provider funded
in 20139
HHS Projects in Assistance to Homelessness (PATH) DHS, Operation Safety Net
and Three Rivers Youth
Federal Emergency
Management Agency
Emergency Food and Shelter Program United Way
PA Department of
Public Welfare
Homeless Assistance Program DHS
These government sources, combined with private sources, purchase the services outlined
below. These services are arranged by the most common needs identified by homeless young
people. (Note that Allegheny County also delivers a number of other services to young adults,
such as behavioral health, independent living support and utility assistance.)
How the youth know where to turn for help
Homeless youth find out what help is available through word of mouth and through the “Street
Outreach” efforts of organizations that employ peer or youth outreach staff or deploy volunteers:
• Three Rivers Youth’s HUB has a street outreach staff person who visits shelters and agencies
to find youth who might need help and to begin to establish a trusting relationship and
connect them with the HUB’s drop-in location in East Liberty. The target areas canvassed
are shelters on the North Side and community agencies in the City of Pittsburgh.
• Operation Safety Net’s (OSN) staff and volunteers conduct street outreach to homeless
individuals of all ages, providing “quality medical services to the uninsured and homeless
through a well-coordinated system of street outreach and mobile medical van sites.”
7
The City uses its grants to
fund the FamilyLinks DOCS
shelter (Uptown) and the HUB
(East Liberty). The County
does not use its grants for
youth-specific programs
(Tammy Pifer, Allegheny
CountyEconomicDevelopment).
8
Note that the Street Outreach
Program requires grantees to
“have 24-hour access to local
emergency shelter space that
is appropriate for youth. Once
outreach staff have placed a
youth there, they must be able
to stay in contact with the
young person.” (Report to
Congress, page 25)
9
ACF’s October 18, 2013
announcement of Street
Outreach grantees: http://
www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/
fysb/resource/2013-sop-
awards

OSN volunteers/staff also have cars that they use to bring food, sleeping bags and hygienic
supplies to homeless individuals living on the streets. One example of OSN’s outreach was
provided by a homeless youth who had been living under the Ninth Street Bridge. When the
city was going to close camps under the bridges on the North Side, OSN helped to spread
the word and relocate people. OSN’s target area for canvassing is downtown Pittsburgh, the
Strip District, North Side, South Side, Oakland and the Hill District. OSN is part of Pittsburgh
Mercy Health System (PMHS).
• Community Human Services’ (CHS) Operation Save-a-Life is an outreach team to street
homeless of all ages, composed of formerly homeless individuals, community members
and service providers. The team provides support, referrals, resources and tangible items
such as weekly lunches, socks, hygiene kits and seasonally appropriate items. Rounds start
at 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, ending by 9 p.m. CHS target the South Side and
North Side areas.
• Until October 1, 2013, Persad’s SOS program had three part-time outreach workers who would
go out onto the streets to find homeless youth through age 24. The program lost its federal
funding and has been discontinued, although its drop-in center continues to remain active.
We had the opportunity to speak with 20 youth through two focus groups. When asked how
they learned where to turn, they reported that word of mouth (other homeless individuals) was
the primary way. They said that they talk with one another on the Food Line on the Boulevard
of the Allies (on weekdays throughout the year, faith-based groups take turns distributing food
from vans parked under the walkway near the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette building); and while
waiting to get help from Miss Nancy, a volunteer who, along with other volunteers, hands out
freshly-washed clothes and groceries at 10 p.m. each Monday at the same location.
While sharing information with one another is an important way to find out how to get the
basics, the youth also said that they are cautious about which homeless individuals they talk to
and that it is a myth to believe that they are monolithic. One young man said, “We don’t stick
around each other. We look for outlets to get away from each other.”
Food
When young adults are staying in an emergency shelter, they will have one or two meals provided
(or three meals and a snack, if they are at FamilyLinks’ DOCS); if they are in transitional housing,
they will have access to kitchen facilities and likely receive Food Stamps. For those young men
and women who do not have the money to buy food and are not staying at a shelter (and for
those who are in a shelter and need the second or third meal that is not provided), there are a
number of places to go for a meal.

TABLE 4: Food Sources
FOOD HOURS
NUMBER
OF DAYS/WEEK LOCATION
Bethlehem Haven, daytime drop-in center 4 p.m. dinner
(For women only)
6 Uptown
East Liberty Presbyterian Lunch 5 East Liberty
Food Line Dinner 7 Downtown
Jubilee Kitchen Lunch 7 Uptown
Light of Life Soup Kitchen Breakfast, dinner 7 North Side
New Hope Church Lunch 3 North Side
Pleasant Valley drop-in Lunch 3 North Side
Red Door Bag lunch 6 Downtown
SAY Lunch 3 Downtown
Shepherd’s Heart Breakfast 5 days
and dinner on Sunday
6 Uptown
Veterans Place:
Homeless Veterans Day Program
Breakfast and Lunch
(Veterans only)
5 East End
Wellspring Center* Lunch 5 Uptown
*Recommended for adults who are over age 25
Shelter
Young adults who are 18 through 21 can stay at the DOCS emergency shelter run by FamilyLinks
(described in detail on the page that follows) as well as any adult emergency shelter.
The emergency shelters in the chart that follows are those that were serving youth in the
18-through-24 age range during 2012. (Note that this is not inclusive of all adult shelters.) Youth
also may be able to receive a motel/hotel voucher from CHS (paid through an ESG grant).
Emergency shelter beds are not always available, however. During the 2012 PIT count,
emergency shelter bed utilization for individuals without children was 108 percent.10
One indicator of the need for shelter beds comes from Pittsburgh Police Commander Maurita
Bryant, who said at a 2013 meeting at the Homeless Children’s Education Fund offices, “When
the officers try to take people to shelters, they get frustrated because the shelters are full and
they don’t have time to drive all over the place.”
10
See Appendices for
calculation, which uses
PIT summary information.

TABLE 5: Sources of Emergency Shelter
EMERGENCY SHELTER NOTES LOCATION
Bethlehem Haven Women only Uptown
Community Human Services Temporary hotel/motel voucher Any
Community Human Services Innovative Shelter LGBTQ
(townhouse on Lawn Street for 4 people)
Oakland
East End Cooperative Ministries Men and women, effective October 2013 East Liberty
FamilyLinks (DOCS) 18 through 21 years, only Uptown
Light of Life Men only North Side
Pleasant Valley Men only (shelter)
Handicapped accessible
Serves openly gay, gender undetermined
Can keep items locked in during day (keep same bed)
North Side
Smithfield United Severe weather only
Men and women gather, men stay and
women go by van to Shepherd’s Heart
Downtown
Shepherd’s Heart Severe weather shelter for women Uptown
The one shelter specifically for youth, ages 18 through 21, is the Downtown Outreach Center and
Shelter (DOCS), operated by FamilyLinks. It is located in Uptown, at 1601 Fifth Avenue, where it
has been since it opened 27 years ago.
The first floor houses an emergency shelter for 18 youth where the young people can stay for
up to 60 days. Youth receive breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack and, as needed, clothing and
transportation assistance. The youth leave during the day for job search, work or school and may
return at lunch for an hour. For those youth who decide not to continue sheltering at DOCS,
FamilyLinks will hold their bed for five consecutive days.
Intake into the DOCS shelter used to be open/drop-in, but has been changed to a “triage
system” in which youth (or a parent or provider) call and answer a variety of eligibility questions
(age-eligibility; if they need to be referred elsewhere because they are on the do-not-admit list
due to an earlier experience at the shelter that involved drug selling, aggression, or fighting; and
where they slept the night before, to determine if they truly do not have a place to stay). If the
youth is on the street or says it is an emergency, DOCS will admit them immediately. If they were
sleeping on a friend’s couch and can continue to stay there, the staff will schedule a time for
admission. These times are on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. A number
of youth don’t call back or show up on the admission date, and the presumption is that they
don’t need shelter at that time. In those cases, the staff will “put a hold on the triage,” and if the
youth later decide to come, they can enter right away. Once the youth is admitted to DOCS, they
work with the staff to develop a service plan within 72 hours of their arrival.

Whether because of the intake process or because there are not enough 18- through 21-year-
olds who need emergency shelter, the DOCS shelter was at just 67 percent capacity during the
January 30, 2013, PIT Count.
The upper floor of the building houses the Transitional Living Program (TLP), which serves
youth ages 16 through 21. This program provides extended shelter, life skills, counseling services,
clothing, transportation and some of the items needed to outfit an apartment when the youth
finds a more permanent place to stay. Youth in both the TLP and the emergency shelter receive
medical care from an on-site nurse.
FamilyLinks reserves three of its beds for youth who are in independent living; these are young
people who are in transition from foster care or other child welfare services.
Other transitional housing programs that served homeless youth during 2012 are listed below.
TABLE 6: Sources of Transitional Housing (for Youth)*
TRANSITIONAL HOUSING PROGRAM NAME NOTES LOCATION
ACTION Housing Homeless Youth Transition Phase 1
Teen Program Phase 2
East Pittsburgh
Adagio Health Step by Step Duquesne
Auberle Movin’ On Duquesne
Bethlehem Haven Step Up
Women-only
Uptown
FamilyLinks Transitional Living Program
16 through 21 years old only
Uptown
First Step Recovery Homes Men only
Dual-diagnosis
McKeesport
Goodwill Harbor Housing
Men only
Ex-offenders
Scattered
Mercy Behavioral Health
(Pittsburgh Mercy Health System)
Housing Plus Program Scattered
Pittsburgh Aids Task Force Pathways Scattered
Sojourner House Open Arms
Women only
Homewood
Society of St. Vincent DePaul Michael’s Place
Men only, 21 and over
Ex-offenders
East End
Veterans Leadership Program Airborne Veterans only Scattered
YWCA Bridge Housing Program
Women only
Scattered
*Note that there are shelters and transitional housing programs other than those listed above. These are the ones that
served single youth in the 18-through-24-years-old range.

Youth who identify as sexual minority have a difficult time in at least some of the emergency
shelters. At Light of Life, for example, all individuals are required to take showers at the same
time, in a large room — an indignity for anyone, but especially difficult for individuals who
identify as transgender but who may not yet be transgender in a physical way. Adrienne Walnoha,
chief executive officer of CHS, explained the difficulties for LGBTQ individuals in this way:
“Traditional shelters are congregate, which means it’s a big auditorium space. You don’t
have privacy. A very effeminate man in a male shelter system is not usually successful.
Neither is someone who may be ‘presenting’ as an opposing gender. The shelter goes by
your official identification, so if you show identification that says your name is John
Smith, but you’re wearing a dress and trying to get into a women’s shelter, they’re not
going to take you. And if it’s a congregant showering situation and your biology doesn’t
match the rest of the group, then that could be a dangerous situation for you. And for
folks who are intersex and have both gender characteristics, if they are in a facility where
they never have any privacy because they have to change in a room with another person
or have to shower in a room with another person, they could really be in a difficult
place.” — In the Spotlight, The Heinz Endowments

Showers, laundry and phones
Shelters have showers and, in some cases, laundry facilities and a telephone for resident use. But
for youth who are not staying in a shelter, these are difficult services to find. Only a few locations
in the county have these services available, regardless of the individual’s age.
TABLE 7: Sources of Showers, Laundry and Phones
NOTES HOURS
NUMBER
OF DAYS
PER WEEK LOCATION
SHOWERS
Pleasant Valley
day program
Showers are for
men only
9 a.m. – 12 p.m. 5 North Side
Project Silk11
Subset of LGBTQ Unknown Unknown Downtown
Shepherd’s Heart 8:25 a.m. –
10:50 a.m.
5 Uptown
Veterans Place: Homeless
Veterans Program
Veterans only 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. 5 East End
Wellspring Center* 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. 5 Uptown
LAUNDRY
Jubilee Kitchen Unknown
Pleasant Valley
day program
Shepherd’s Heart 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. 5 Uptown
PHONE
Persad Located at GLCC 12 p.m. – evening 7 Downtown
Pleasant Valley
day program
Where to stay indoors
Homeless youth have relatively few options for places to go during the day if they need or want
to be indoors. While there is a drop-in center at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of
Pittsburgh and one at Three Rivers Youth that are specifically for young people, neither of these
provides the full array of services and supports that staff and youth need (these two centers are
described in detail on the following page).
Beyond spending time at one of those centers, youth can go to drop-in centers for other adults,
to libraries (this is the primary place where they access the Internet), to the Greyhound Bus
Terminal (for outlets to charge devices and restrooms that are available 24/7), and to coffee
shops that allow them to stay for a time.
11
Project Silk is a demonstration
project of the PA Department
of Health and the Pennsylvania
Prevention Project, led by the
University of Pittsburgh. It is a
“space for the black and
Latino LGBT community” that
provides a drop-in space, HIV
testing and linkages to care
for people with new or prior
diagnoses of HIV infection.
It focuses on 13- through
29-year-olds and their sexual
partners at a site downtown,
at 810 Penn Avenue.

TABLE 8: Places to Stay Indoors
INDOORS NOTES HOURS
NUMBER
OF DAYS
PER WEEK LOCATION
DROP-IN CENTERS
Bethlehem Haven Drop-In Women only 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
(Wed. – Sun.)
5 Uptown
East End Cooperative
Ministries Drop-In
Accessible
(new facility)
3 p.m. – 5 p.m. 5 East Liberty
Persad (at GLCC) Youth (not accessible) 12 p.m. – evening 7 Downtown
Pleasant Valley
day program
Accessible 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. 5 North Side
Shepherd’s Heart 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. 5 Uptown
Three Rivers Youth Youth
Accessible
10 a.m. – 3 p.m. 5 East End
Veterans Place: Homeless
Veterans Day Program
Veterans only
Accessible
8 a.m. – 3 p.m. 5 East End
CARNEGIE LIBRARY
Allegheny Center Accessible 10 a.m. – evening 6 North Side
Downtown Accessible 8:30 a.m. – evening 6 North Side
Oakland Accessible 10 a.m. – evening 7 East End
South Side Accessible 10 a.m. – evening 6 South Side
OTHER
Greyhound Terminal Accessible 24 hours Downtown
Drop-in centers for homeless youth
Persad staffs a drop-in center for youth (24 and younger) at the Gay and Lesbian Community
Center (GLCC) at 210 Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh. The Center was the home base
for Persad’s three outreach staff until it lost its federal grant in 2013. It is open from noon
to 9 p.m. (except when the Center has a meeting); and on Sundays from noon until 6 p.m.
The Center has a television, a computer, board games, use of the staff’s telephone, a restroom,
kitchen sink, and large room with couches and chairs where the youth can visit with one another.
A staff person is available to answer questions, make referrals and provide some tangible
assistance, since the Center has a supply closet of donated clothing, and Persad secures
donations of other items, including bus tickets. Joanne Goodall, a nurse practitioner for UPMC’s
outreach program, provides health care in a designated area within GLCC (she also provides
health care at FamilyLinks’ DOCS shelter/transitional housing).

Since GLCC is a good location for providers to reach a number of homeless youth, a group
of volunteers and agency staff who have formed Service Access for Youth (SAY) have been
providing pizza and an activity there each Wednesday for several hours in the afternoon and
an outreach program late on Thursday afternoons. They typically average eight young people
on Wednesdays and fewer on Thursdays.
The youth said of the drop-in center run by Persad: “It’s a big help to a lot of us. Anyone can
come” and “It’s a place of good keep.”
Three Rivers Youth has a federal Basic Center Program grant from HHS for its HUB program
for youth, ages 18 through 21 (through age 24, for youth with mental health issues). The center
is located in the Three Rivers Youth administrative offices in East Liberty (near the Target store).
It has an open space and a computer lab with Internet access and also offers meals. The HUB
is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., but youth need to call to make an
appointment. They can receive emergency food, assessment, counseling and crisis intervention,
referrals to services, shelter, housing, legal services, linkages with youth and family services,
and follow-up care.
Because the HUB is located so far from the downtown, South Side and North Side areas where
many youth sleep and live, and because staff do not have bus tickets to distribute, it is not
frequented by the homeless youth. If they do visit, they do not come back. In fact, in discussions
with the youth and several outreach workers, no one had heard of the HUB; it was not included
on the map of services for homeless people that a committee of homeless providers developed.
The original HUB program, located in the Strip District, did not have the same problems. One
person at Three Rivers Youth said that the “old HUB” may have been more of a draw to young
people because of its location — which was less corporate-feeling — and because it had a
kitchen, laundry, showers, toilets, large room with computers, clothes and other tangible items
to distribute to the youth.
For at least a few years, the original HUB also had a partnership with FamilyLinks in which they
shared outreach and the HUB could directly refer young people to the DOCS shelter. Both Three
Rivers Youth and FamilyLinks said that this arrangement worked well — more young people were
using the DOCS shelter then, for example — and allowed them to serve youth more effectively.
Education and training
It is likely that half of the homeless young adults in our area have not completed their high
school educations and, for this reason, the federal laws guaranteeing them access to public
education are crucial to their taking an essential step out of homelessness and poverty. This
law, the McKinney-Vento Act (signed in 2001 and amended by the HEARTH Act in 2009) allows
youth without a high school degree or GED to continue their education in a public school until
they are 21 (or 22, if they have special educational needs). They can choose to receive academic

and vocational education in the school they attended when they were permanently housed or in
the area in which they are now living. Providers expressed the concern that young people do not
know this and do not have advocates to help them.
For youth who are interested in career training, the federal Job Corps program is a good
option through age 24. Job Corps is a residential, educational and job training program located
in the Lincoln-Lemington neighborhood of the City of Pittsburgh on Highland Drive. (It has sites
throughout the U.S., and youth may choose to attend another site, instead.) The Pittsburgh
program offers training in each of the following areas:
• CNA/Home Health Care
• Clinical Medical Assistant
• Medical Office Support
• Electrical Helper
• HVAC
• Facilities Maintenance
• Heavy Equipment Mechanic
• Heavy Equipment Operator
• Weatherization (Advanced Training)
• Culinary Arts
The Job Corps website reads, “One of our top goals at Pittsburgh Job Corps is to ensure that
every qualified student obtains his or her GED/high school diploma prior to leaving the center.
Students who don’t already have a high school diploma upon their arrival at Pittsburgh are
enrolled into our GED program. Students who complete the GED program’s core classes may
participate in our high school diploma program.” Job Corps also provides basic reading and
math, as well as courses in independent living, employability skills and social skills.
To search for work and professional development options, homeless young people, like anyone
in the county, can visit a CareerLink site to learn about publicly-funded training opportunities.
(See next section for list of CareerLink sites.)
In each of these cases, the young person needs to have a way to learn about the options and
guidance, motivation and encouragement to pursue further education. This is part of what they
may receive if they are staying in a transitional living program, but not if they are in a shelter or
living on the street.

Employment
Most of the homeless youth in the focus groups said that they would like help in finding work,
particularly in finding companies that will hire individuals who have criminal backgrounds. The
primary place to search for jobs in the county is CareerLink, which has full sites and an affiliate
site (offering a subset of services) at these locations:
• Downtown: 425 6th Avenue, 22nd Floor, Pittsburgh PA 15219-1837
• Forest Hills: 2040 Ardmore Blvd., Pittsburgh PA 15221
• Lawrenceville: Affiliate site at Goodwill Industries of Southwestern Pennsylvania,
118 52nd Street, Pittsburgh PA 15201. This site has several youth-focused programs.
Pleasant Valley Shelter said that it also refers a number of homeless individuals to the Northside
Leadership Conference’s Neighborhood Employment Center, located in the Allegheny Center Mall.
Several of the young people interviewed said that they had accessed temporary work through
Labor Ready or Manpower, which would get them short-term work, including stints at job sites
where they could not walk in and get a job on their own because of their lack of experience or
criminal record.
The youth we interviewed are also interested in community service. One person said, “We would
do community service to have a tent,” and another said, “We want to be able to clean up the
camp sites. There are decades of refuse there. We carry it around in trash bags. If we had work
gloves and garbage bags, we could clean it up. We want to clean up our area.”
Healthcare
Healthcare for the Homeless visits shelters, and OSN goes out in the evenings to provide medical
care for the street homeless. There also are free/sliding fee clinics available at locations throughout
the county and the Healthcare for the Uninsured program of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, located
on Ninth Street in downtown Pittsburgh, which is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. A chart
of healthcare clinics is provided in Appendix L on page 56.
Transportation
Since there is no one-stop-shop for services for homeless youth, they need to travel among
neighborhoods and across the city. This is particularly difficult for youth without bus fare or
other transportation options. The exceptions are those youth who:
• Are veterans. They can participate in Veterans Place’s “Homeless Veterans Day Program,”
which has a van service that will take them to its day program, to the VA, and to other
appointments, including interviews.
• Are women in Bethlehem Haven’s transportation program with Travelers Aid (where they
can receive bus tickets).
• Are working with one of the agencies that participate in Travelers Aid’s Employment
Transportation Assistance Program, or have Medical Assistance and are therefore eligible
for the Medical Assistance Transportation Program at Travelers Aid.

• Catch the van at Shepherd’s Heart, which leaves at 8:25 a.m. and 10:55 a.m. during the
weekday. The van makes 12 stops on the North Side, South Side, downtown and the VA
Hospital on University Drive. The van is funded by donations. Shepherd’s Heart used to
distribute bus tickets, but they “got to be too expensive.”
Clothes and shoes
Each of the shelters and drop-in centers has donated clothing available and can access Dress for
Success for clothing, but shoes are in short supply and often are not available. One staff person
described purchasing shoes for homeless individuals with her own money because “their shoes
get worn to the ground.”
People who are not in shelters can find clothing and shoes through Miss Nancy, a volunteer who
has for many years been distributing coats and boots and washing clothes for the homeless.
Dozens of volunteers assist her in these activities on the Line (near the Post-Gazette building)
every Monday night at 10 p.m., year round.
Mail and legal assistance
Wellspring Center, which is part of Pittsburgh Mercy Health System, provides homeless
individuals with a mailing address, which is particularly important for things such as Social
Security and job applications. Pleasant Valley residents can use the address at the shelter as
their mailing address while they are staying there.
Bethlehem Haven opens its Uptown Legal Clinic once each month, and OSN has its Homeless
Experience Legal Protection (Project HELP) program, both of which provide free legal assistance
to homeless individuals. Project HELP is staffed by volunteer attorneys and provides services
such as “restoring lost identification, filing for government benefits such as Social Security, and
assistance in minor criminal cases.”
LOCAL ISSUES
With government, private and volunteer support, agencies and faith-based organizations across
the county have built a network of housing and homeless services that homeless young adults
can access. But this system is highly decentralized and presumes that
individuals living on the street can physically get from one service
provider to the next within the narrow window of time during which
these programs are open, negotiate each of their requirements, and
travel across the city and county. It also is built for adults who are more
trusting of authority and experienced in how to negotiate for what they need. For those parts of
the system that are specifically for younger adults, the age range is too narrow (through age 21
instead of 24) and key services are missing, including a focus on family reunification and employment.
“We’ve got tons of resources, but they’re
haphazard and geared to certain ages.”
— Homeless person

Issue 1: Being decentralized means people have to travel all over the place
Young people face a crazy quilt of hours and locations when they want to take care of the basics
of life. If, for example, a 23-year-old (technically, too old for the DOCS shelter) is street homeless
and living on the South Side and learns on a Thursday that he has a job interview on Monday
morning, he will need to get to the North Side (Pleasant Valley drop-in) or Uptown (Shepherd’s
Heart or Wellspring) on Friday to clean his clothes (his last chance, since there is no place to do
laundry on the weekend). Over the weekend, he can find breakfast, lunch and dinner at Light
of Life on the North Side or dinner at the Food Line downtown. He can then head back Uptown
to Shepherd’s Heart for breakfast at 8 a.m. and try to catch the free van leaving at 8:55 a.m.,
which may take him closer to his interview. But if the potential employer tries to contact him by
email, he will not have had Internet access at all unless he travels out to the Carnegie Library in
Oakland, which is the only site open on Sundays. Even if he can navigate all of this without too
much difficulty, he first has to know that these places exist and their hours and criteria.
There is not a “core” set of services identified for any agency participating in this system. The
fact that dozens of agencies provide different services at different times of day may, at first
glance, be seen as providing choice and flexibility. But young people are walking from place to
place or finding case managers who can give them a bus pass (not as a matter of policy, since
most agencies do not have funding for this).
Contrast this with Larkin Street in San Francisco, which operates a network of drop-in centers
and shelters that it connects through its van transportation. From prevention to street outreach
to shelter to employment, one organization works with the youth and helps them with their
needs as they change over time.
Issue 2: It’s an adult system
The existing set of homelessness and housing programs were created for adults who are more
willing to accept authority figures and adult-dominated environments. Youth more often mistrust
agencies and authority figures, largely because their own experiences may include abuse,
neglect and/or arrest.
Several providers said that adult shelters are not the right place for young adults. One said that
when he ran a men’s shelter, “I always felt uncomfortable with 21-year-olds in the shelter. The
last thing they needed was one of my crew teaching them something
they didn’t need to learn.” Another provider said that the drop-in center
she runs is “not a good place for young people. It’s an older crowd.” She
was concerned for the youth, but also saw that young people brought
problems that more mature adults did not (specifically mentioning that
they may be more aggressive and may sexualize the environment).
“If you’re old or young or have serious
problems, then you can get help. But if
you’re a regular person who is fighting
depression and the desire to do drugs
because of your situation, then it’s harder
to get help.” — Homeless person

Issue 3: Gaps in services
Because the risk of becoming chronically homeless (and the dangers faced while on that path)
can be amplified with time, Whitbeck and others have said that effective interventions for
homeless youth should happen immediately and focus on stabilizing them through family
reunification (when safe) or through an alternative living arrangement. Her findings apply to
minors as well as youth in the 18-through-24 age range.12
But active family reunification is not a
stated goal of street outreach, drop-ins or adult shelters, as it is in other cities, and the tools for
family reunification, such as family-finding, may not be available to the staff.
Another gap in services for this age range is shelter beds. Other than the DOCS emergency
shelter (which serves 18-through-21-year-olds), there is not another emergency shelter in the
county for youth ages 18 through 24.13
(There are Runaway and Homeless Youth shelters and
programs for minors, such as Auberle’s McKeesport shelter, which serves youth through age 17.)
One might argue that even if the age range at DOCS were extended through age 24, it still might
not be filled most nights — an indication that there are just not enough youth who want or need
shelter. But the intake process at DOCS may be suppressing their census. Before assuming that
youth do not want or need shelter at DOCS, it would be worthwhile investing in additional staff
to provide more frequent intake with fewer barriers to entry.
For individuals of all ages who are LGBTQ, and for youth in particular, since they are more likely
to be sexual minorities than adults, the lack of shelter options is an issue. Pleasant Valley
welcomes LGBTQ youth and adults and tries to make sure that they are in beds located close to
staff, to help them feel comfortable and safe. The Innovative Housing that CHS recently opened
in Oakland is a step in the direction of providing options that are nondiscriminatory and
appropriate, but this is available for only four individuals at any point in time. It is likely that, for
every 200 homeless youth, 60 (one-third) are LGBTQ.
Another gap is work — or information about where to get help in finding a job. Young adults
who are homeless want to work (and specifically mentioned doing community service in
exchange for housing), but find it difficult to obtain employment because of their criminal
record, lack of experience, lack of a telephone, or the difficulty in “getting it together” (haircut,
shoes, shave) before job interviews. Only two of the 20 youth in the focus group had heard
about CareerLink.
12
In its Framework to End
Unaccompanied Youth
Homelessness, NAEH writes
in its section on 18- through
24-year-olds, “For young
adults who fall in the
transitional subpopulation,
connection with family and
caring adults is also a positive
outcome and, so again, family
intervention could be seen as
a first line of intervention,
when appropriate.”
13
I2013 HIC Chart: Inventory of
all HIC and PIT

RECOMMENDATIONS
This analysis leads to the following recommendations:
1. Expand the eligibility window for existing services through age 24
Since the FamilyLinks DOCS shelter is not at full capacity and the HUD definition of youth
extends through age 24, FamilyLinks should consider extending its age limit. It also should
undertake a review of its intake procedures to determine how youth could more quickly and
readily access its shelter, including changing the process so that it is less dependent upon
youth having access to a telephone. Finally, the staff of the youth drop-in centers (Three Rivers
Youth and Persad) should work in concert with the staff at DOCS to ensure that youth learn
about the shelter and transitional housing and to coordinate the services and planning for these
young people.
2. Plan services for 18- through 24-year-olds
The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) recommends that communities develop
a plan for serving unaccompanied youth that includes:
• Establishing screening and assessment tools and processes
• Planning strategies and services according to types of risk and protective factors
• Implementing those interventions
• Evaluating impact and using those results for continuous quality improvement and
to revise strategies
Leaders of the housing and homelessness system in Allegheny County
should lead a community effort to develop such a plan for serving
homeless youth. Given the significant share of homeless youth who
have been in foster care or received other child welfare services, this
plan should be coordinated with DHS’s Independent Living program
and other resources pioneered by DHS.
The plan may select strategies and services based upon serving either the toughest-to-serve
youth (chronicity) or the greatest number of youth (prevalence). Prioritizing chronicity would
require a triage tool and investment in strategies that address the array of issues experienced
by this relatively small number of youth. Eric Rice of the University of Southern California has
suggested that priority be determined using a vulnerability index. He identified six risk factors14
that correlate with long-term homelessness, finding that only 10 percent of youth have
experienced four or more of these risks. NAEH’s Samantha Batko reported that Los Angeles and
Chicago are piloting a triage tool.
Choosing instead to target the largest numbers of youth, will most likely result in serving
younger individuals in the “low-risk” category. In this case, effective investments would include
strategies such as family reunification.
“We deserve just as much a chance as
anybody else. I’m willing to get out and do
what I need to do. The most important thing
they can give us is a chance.” — Homeless youth
14
These six risk factors are:
• violence at home among
family members
• differences in religious
beliefs with parents/
guardians/caregivers
• left group or foster home
• first marijuana use under the
age of 12
• spent time in jail or juvenile
detention before the age of 18
• been pregnant or gotten
someone else pregnant

Two additional notes on planning:
Engaging young people: Any plan will necessarily include strategies to reach and engage young
people, and focus group participants had the following suggestions for how to do so:
• Go to the Food Line to hand out information. “People there know each other and will let
each other know.”
• Post information on bridges and drop-in centers.
• Post information on Facebook, which the youth access from the library.
• Let the “church people” know. They have volunteers who work the Food Line and who
walk the streets at night and hold services.
• People who do street outreach should “give young people the run-down, the reality.
Instead of what I heard from so many people, ‘Oh, it’s going to get better.’” The youth
also said, “We need people who were on the streets and who can mentor people
one-on-one. There’s a certain mindset they need to have.”
When asked about the idea of an app that would show services, youth said this was a good
idea but said that this should be for outreach workers to use since they (the youth) do not have
smartphones. The outreach workers could access the app and provide the information to the
youth they meet on the street.
They also cautioned against assuming that most youth have phones. Even if they receive a free
phone, it usually has only 250 minutes, which they may use within the first two weeks.
Counting young people: While not essential to beginning the planning, decision-makers would
benefit from a more accurate count of homeless youth. Following the guidance of the Youth
Count! Initiative, this involves a very organized effort to recruit and train a large number of
enumerators, including peers, to ask the kinds of questions that people in Santa Clara County,
Boston and Seattle have asked. (See Appendix G on page 49 for information on the Santa Clara
County Count, which was part of its total enumeration of homeless individuals and families. It is
one of several counts conducted by Applied Survey Research.)
In addition to conducting an accurate count of young people who meet HUD’s definition of
homelessness, the county could look at the methodology that Multnomah County, Oregon, and
Portland, Maine, have used to estimate the number of people who are couch-surfing. These
methods are summarized in Appendix H on page 52.
3. Open a drop-in center in/near downtown; or open shelters during the daytime
to serve as drop-in centers
Providers often talked about the old drop-in center for youth that had many of the services and
supports that youth need, all under one roof. This center, which was the original iteration of the
HUB, was operated in the Strip District by Three Rivers Youth. This center closed two years ago
when it lost federal grants. No other full-service center has opened in its place.

Youth and providers alike recommended that a drop-in center be located downtown so that it is
within walking distance of a number of services or, if that is not possible, that it be located on the
South Side and that the agency provide van access to the center and to other services around
the city. They also suggested that it be open “all day, every day” and be available for any young
person. One young adult who is homeless said, “The key is knowing about a consistent location,”
and another suggested, “There needs to be one set spot.”
It is recommended that this center include:
• A service coordinator who knows about resources and can help young people access
them, including the Independent Living program available to youth who were involved
with child welfare
• A home base where providers, such as nurses, employers, schools and job training agencies,
can come to engage young people
• Food and a small kitchen
• Bathrooms
• Phones
• Computers with Internet access
• Showers
• Laundry facilities
• Van/shuttle bus transportation to key sites
• Bus tickets (as rewards for participation, chores, etc.)
• Work and volunteer opportunities
One shelter provider recommended that the youth be allowed to sleep there during the day
because “shelters aren’t set up for that” and the youth may be working late at night and have
no place to rest during the day. The youth said that they would like it to be gender-neutral and
non-religious.
Finally, the drop-in center needs to be in close communication with street outreach staff and
shelters for youth. Providers recommended that the staff who serve 18- through 24-year-olds
meet frequently for case reviews, similar to the process for providers of adult men.
4. Increase shelter options for youth
Housing and homeless system leaders should develop new options for shelter while working
to ensure that staff and policies are LGBTQ-competent. They should also consider developing
shelter options similar to those in other cities, where young people can receive vocational
training and job placement, even as they are working on substance use and other issues.
“We could have places where there was a
kitchen, bathrooms, and four showers and
a common area. Not housing, but a place to
come to get cleaned up and meet other
people. This also could be where outreach
workers or program people could come to
let homeless know what is available. This is
where people who are just starting in jobs
can come to get bus tickets.” — Homeless person

I'll Never Get Used to It: Young People Living on the Street

I'll Never Get Used to It: Young People Living on the Street

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